Sir Adrian Boult: The Decca Legacy Vol.2 - Baroque & Sacred Music | Australian Eloquence ELQ4842302

Sir Adrian Boult: The Decca Legacy Vol.2 - Baroque & Sacred Music

£83.55

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Label: Australian Eloquence

Cat No: ELQ4842302

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 13

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 7th October 2022

Contents

Works

Anonymous

God Save the Queen (arr. Benjamin Britten)
Jubilate (arr. Woodgate)
O come, all ye faithful (arr. Woodgate)

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Bist du bei mir, BWV508
Cantata BWV147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'
» Jesu bleibet meine Freude (Jesu, joy of man's desiring)
Cantata BWV208, 'Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!'
» Sheep may safely graze (Schafe konnen sicher weiden)
» Sheep may safely graze (Schafe konnen sicher weiden) (arr. Granville Bantock)
Mass in B minor, BWV232
» Agnus Dei
» Qui sedes
Orchestral Suite no.3 in D major, BWV1068
» II Air 'Air on the G string'
St John Passion, BWV245
» Es ist vollbracht! (All is Fulfilled) (sung in English)
St Matthew Passion, BWV244
» Break in grief
» Grief for sin

Clarke, Jeremiah

Trumpet Voluntary 'Prince of Denmark's March'

Gruber, Franz Xaver

Silent Night (arr. Woodgate)

Handel, George Frideric

Acis and Galatea, HWV49
Jephtha, HWV70
» Deeper and deeper still
» Waft her, angels, through the skies
Judas Maccabaeus, HWV63
» Father of Heaven
» My arms! Against this Gorgias will I go
» Sound an alarm
» Thanks to my brethren... How vain is man
Messiah, HWV56
Praise ye the Lord (attrib. Handel, arr. Woodgate)
Radamisto, HWV12
» Gods all powerful (Sommi dei)
Samson, HWV57
» Return, O God of hosts
Semele, HWV58
» O sleep! Why dost thou leave me?
» Where'er you walk
Serse (Xerxes), HWV40
» Ombra mai fu (Act 1)
Solomon, HWV67
Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto, HWV25
» Silent Worship

Liddle, Samuel

Abide with me

Mendelssohn, Felix

Hear my prayer (Hor' mein Bitten)
Paulus, op.36
» Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets

Parry, Charles Hubert Hastings

Jerusalem

Artists

Kirsten Flagstad (soprano)
Joan Sutherland (soprano)
Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Grace Bumbry (mezzo-soprano)
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)
Norma Procter (contralto)
David Galliver (tenor)
George Maran (tenor)
Kenneth McKellar (tenor)
Peter Pears (tenor)
Owen Brannigan (bass)
David Ward (bass)
London Philharmonic Chorus
London Symphony Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
St Anthony Singers
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductors

Adrian Boult
Kenneth Alwyn
Benjamin Britten

Works

Anonymous

God Save the Queen (arr. Benjamin Britten)
Jubilate (arr. Woodgate)
O come, all ye faithful (arr. Woodgate)

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Bist du bei mir, BWV508
Cantata BWV147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'
» Jesu bleibet meine Freude (Jesu, joy of man's desiring)
Cantata BWV208, 'Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!'
» Sheep may safely graze (Schafe konnen sicher weiden)
» Sheep may safely graze (Schafe konnen sicher weiden) (arr. Granville Bantock)
Mass in B minor, BWV232
» Agnus Dei
» Qui sedes
Orchestral Suite no.3 in D major, BWV1068
» II Air 'Air on the G string'
St John Passion, BWV245
» Es ist vollbracht! (All is Fulfilled) (sung in English)
St Matthew Passion, BWV244
» Break in grief
» Grief for sin

Clarke, Jeremiah

Trumpet Voluntary 'Prince of Denmark's March'

Gruber, Franz Xaver

Silent Night (arr. Woodgate)

Handel, George Frideric

Acis and Galatea, HWV49
Jephtha, HWV70
» Deeper and deeper still
» Waft her, angels, through the skies
Judas Maccabaeus, HWV63
» Father of Heaven
» My arms! Against this Gorgias will I go
» Sound an alarm
» Thanks to my brethren... How vain is man
Messiah, HWV56
Praise ye the Lord (attrib. Handel, arr. Woodgate)
Radamisto, HWV12
» Gods all powerful (Sommi dei)
Samson, HWV57
» Return, O God of hosts
Semele, HWV58
» O sleep! Why dost thou leave me?
» Where'er you walk
Serse (Xerxes), HWV40
» Ombra mai fu (Act 1)
Solomon, HWV67
Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto, HWV25
» Silent Worship

Liddle, Samuel

Abide with me

Mendelssohn, Felix

Hear my prayer (Hor' mein Bitten)
Paulus, op.36
» Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets

Parry, Charles Hubert Hastings

Jerusalem

Artists

Kirsten Flagstad (soprano)
Joan Sutherland (soprano)
Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Grace Bumbry (mezzo-soprano)
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)
Norma Procter (contralto)
David Galliver (tenor)
George Maran (tenor)
Kenneth McKellar (tenor)
Peter Pears (tenor)
Owen Brannigan (bass)
David Ward (bass)
London Philharmonic Chorus
London Symphony Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
St Anthony Singers
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductors

Adrian Boult
Kenneth Alwyn
Benjamin Britten

About

*** LIMITED EDITION ***

The second volume of Sir Adrian Boult’s Decca legacy brings together the conductor’s Messiah recordings of 1954 and 1960, plus Baroque and sacred music recitals from Kenneth McKellar, Kirsten Flagstad and Kathleen Ferrier.

While hardly a ‘period-instrument’ pioneer, Sir Adrian Boult had a much surer sense of authentic Handelian style than most of his contemporaries. Editions and performances of Handel’s masterpiece were still often cut and loaded with Romantic trappings in 1935 when Julian Herbage prepared the most complete version of the score yet made, with Handel’s original instrumentation. Boult began performing this version in 1942 and it was the obvious choice for a new, refreshing perspective on the piece when he came to record it for Decca in 1954.

Listeners and critics alike were struck by the energy of Boult’s direction, the purity and simplicity of the solo singing and the vivid Decca engineering. These qualities also distinguished the stereo remake, made with similarly slimmed-down forces and featuring Dame Joan Sutherland on the top line. She also contributed to the success of Boult’s Acis and Galatea from 1959, and the box is completed with a series of glorious vocal recitals, from the tenor Kenneth McKellar, the soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the contralto Kathleen Ferrier, all accompanied by Boult in Baroque repertoire with the sensitivity to line that made him so underrated and underused as an opera conductor.

Ferrier recorded this selection of Bach and Handel arias a year before her death in 1952, but eight years later Boult and the LPO returned to the studios to produce a stereo accompaniment for the album, which the Decca producer James Walker mixed with Ferrier’s part from 1952: an early and remarkably successful example of the technology later used to ‘update’ classic recordings of Caruso and Callas.

“An orchestra precisely the same as was used when the oratorio was first produced in Dublin in 1742. Hearing it this way is indeed a revelation and the fact that it is given complete is an added pleasure.” – Irish Monthly, June 1954 (Handel: Messiah, mono version)

“The outstanding feature is apparent at once: it has a beautifully engineered sound. Balance is exceptional in all directions, a rarity in choral recording … and the strings are satiny. Since Sir Adrian has accomplished a projection of the tenderest and the most forceful dynamics, the pianos, in this realistic seizure of sound, are feathery, delightful.” – High Fidelity, September 1954 (Handel: Messiah, mono version)

“[Flagstad] sounds completely happy and relaxed in her singing of ‘Sheep may safely graze’, and her voice doesn’t seem to have one tremor of age. In fact, to these ears, it sounds more beautiful than ever … One of the most powerful utterances of Flagstad on records.” – High Fidelity, August 1957 (Bach and Handel arias – Flagstad)

“The singer’s beautiful dark tones and the gravity of her style admirably suit ‘He was despised’ and ‘Es ist vollbracht’ … The more joyous ‘Thou that tellest’ is equally well done.” – Musical Times, May 1954 (Bach and Handel arias – Ferrier, mono version)

“The record is equally moving to hear as a purely musical experience, even without the emotional coloration imparted to it by Miss Ferrier’s passing.” – High Fidelity, January 1954 (Bach and Handel arias – Ferrier, mono version)

“[Ferrier’s] matchless voice singing Bach and Handel in three dimensions, fuller and more detached than I ever heard it before … It was as though a great singer whose career we thought rounded with a sleep had awakened radiant in the light of day.” – High Fidelity, September 1960 (Bach and Handel arias – Ferrier, stereo version)

“Before her last illness Ferrier’s voice was at its finest, and the sense of presence, of an actual performance, is made all the more vivid in stereo.” – Musical Times, February 1961 (Bach and Handel arias – Ferrier, stereo version)

“A splendid performance of one of Handel’s freshest scores … Boult leads a clear, transparent rendition … [Pears] has few peers today in the styling of this kind of music.” – High Fidelity, July 1960 (Handel: Acis and Galatea)

“David Ward is a tower of strength … The orchestra and chorus, under Boult’s firm but sympathetic direction, are both first-rate.” – Musical Times, December 1961 (Handel: Messiah, stereo version)

“Boult has done it again … The new set calls for cheers and genuine rejoicing … A towering performance of this towering masterpiece … The power of the Hallelujah Chorus practically lifts you out of your chair, tradition or no.” – High Fidelity, January 1962 (Handel: Messiah, stereo version)

“[McKellar’s] voice is of the right sort – light and flexible, but not white. He handles it expertly, carrying off the runs with dash, and sustaining the long, soft phrases with care … Boult’s accompaniments are incisive and well-paced, Decca’s sound top-notch.” – High Fidelity, September 1961 (Handel Arias – McKellar)

“These old chestnuts never had it so good, and Flagstad makes ‘Silent Night’ her own much as did Schumann-Heink. It is a perfect record with which to say ‘good night’ to your friends.” – High Fidelity, July 1970 (Sacred Songs – Flagstad)

Reviews

Another legend for whom to find a bit of extra shelf space is conductor Adrian Boult, whose Decca Legacy has been released across three indispensable volumes.
BBC Music Magazine
‘The Decca Legacy’ showcases items that might reasonably be defined as ‘timeless’ alongside those whose qualities are merely ‘of their time’. […] These swankily packaged sets will delight Boult mavens and more general collectors.
Gramophone
This box has been expertly compiled and is very handsome
MusicWeb International

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